By Neil Cook, VP Security Products at Open-Xchange
In 2018, Open-Xchange released its first version of PowerDNS Protect to help telcos and service providers keep their customers’ homes and families safe. OX Protect secures home and mobile networks against malware and Internet of Things (IoT) related threats. It also safeguards families and enables parents to manage internet access and filter inappropriate content. Today, we are pleased to announce the release of the second major version of PowerDNS Protect, PowerDNS Protect v2.0.
PowerDNS Protect is designed for internet service providers, specifically because they are ideally suited to help combat online privacy and security concerns from within their network. It’s a massive opportunity for them to update their offering, raise brand awareness and unlock new revenue streams by offering a truly secure online experience for all. The initial version of Protect provided a network-based solution that lets end-users filter specific content, set up and maintain their configurations easily, apply updates automatically and protect against malware, phishing and other threats. Protect v2.0 adds further improvements to that solution.
Protect 2.0 includes an improved end-user security dashboard that allows users to view reports that show the security status of their home and the devices within it. The security dashboard provides an overview of malicious activity of devices on the network. It shows devices that are potentially infected with malware, as well as devices that attempted to visit phishing or malware download sites. The security dashboard provides an overview of the alerts that occurred in the past 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days, allowing users to track malicious activity and act upon it, for example by using anti-virus software.
Protecting devices and users involves many security measures throughout the day. Therefore, PowerDNS has improved the notifications and filtering of events, such as attempts to visit blacklisted webpages, blocked phishing attacks, and more. Notifications are now displayed in a simpler view, are allocated per device, and directly offer actions to users. Operators can decide to enable advanced throttling of events, letting Protect throttle repeated messages from the same origin. An indicator displays a count of messages allowing the user to keep track of the times a specific event occurred and provides more details on all entries. The notifications distinguish between malware, phishing and botnet activities, and users are provided with dedicated notifications for each type of malicious activity, as well as notifications for other blocked activities such as those restricted by parental controls. All events can be stored in a versatile database for per user and per system-wide reporting, and like all PowerDNS Protect features are available over a REST API.
PowerDNS Protect’s scheduling concept helps users to restrict internet access at specific times. This lets users, for example, create schedules such as “bed time” or “dinner time” where internet access is not available to certain profiles.
PowerDNS Protect v2.0 now also supports advanced schedules called Homework Time. During the selected time(s), the regular content filtering can be made more restrictive without completely blocking access to the internet. For example, during homework time children could still have access to sites such as Wikipedia and other educational websites, whereas social media, messaging, gaming and streaming services are blocked.
Make use of Protect to offer your subscribers peace of mind while strengthening your portfolio and revenue streams. Please reach out to your account manager or contact us if you wish to learn more about PowerDNS Protect.
